KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Prior to Thursday, BYU fans hadn’t been able to see much of Kennard Davis Jr. on the court this season.
The Southern Illinois transfer had only appeared in two games and had been out of action for the previous 19 days — first for an injury, and then for serving a suspension after a violation of team rules.
But just over an hour prior to the Cougars’ Thanksgiving matchup with Miami at the ESPN Events Invitational at Walt Disney World in Florida, BYU announced that Davis had served his two-game suspension and would make his return against the Hurricanes.
It ended up being a major boost for the Cougars.
Davis led all scorers with 18 points Thursday, adding five rebounds, hitting four catch-and-shoot 3-pointers and playing excellent defense in BYU’s 72-62 win over Miami.
“That’s what we brought Kennard Davis here to do, is really guard and to make shots,” BYU head coach Kevin Young told reporters after the victory.
Eleven of Davis’ 18 points and three of his triples came after halftime, playing a crucial role in helping the Cougars dig out of a 4-point halftime hole en route to the 10-point triumph.
Davis’ second 3-pointer of the night put BYU ahead 42-40 with just under 16 minutes left to play in the second half. From that point on, the Cougars would never relinquish the lead again.
“With Keba (Keita) rolling to the rim, and AJ (Dybantsa) getting downhill, we have a lot of things that (opponents) have to worry about, so a guy like Kennard is going to have a lot of opportunities to make shots,” Young said.
“Obviously he did that tonight, (he) made some huge ones, too. I’m proud of his resilience and just proud of the way he goes about his business.”
After trailing 33-29 at halftime, BYU opened the second half on a 30-12 run and never looked back. Davis’ aforementioned go-ahead 3-pointer kickstarted a 10-0 Cougars run where Miami failed to score across a five minute stretch, all but tipping the scales in BYU’s favor for good.
Defensively, the Cougars overcame Miami’s physicality and turned in arguably their best defensive effort of the year. The Hurricanes scored a season-low 62 points — a far cry from their season average of 92.2 — and shot just 37.9% from the field and 22.7% from long distance.
“I say this to our team a lot. I think every game that you play has a life of its own,” Young said. “And tonight, we were just searching for the right buttons, and the zone (defense) I thought slowed them down and allowed Keba to kind of hold down the middle for us, and I think that’s where the game really, really changed.”
Keita feasted around the rim, swatting seven blocks as the crown jewel of BYU’s zone. Miami, who usually scores 50 points per game in the paint, finished with 34 against the Cougars.
“I want to win, man. Whatever it takes, you know?” Keita said. “I’m not backing down for anybody. So whatever it takes, you know, I want to win. So that’s what I was trying to do, nothing special.”
“He’s an unbelievable shot blocker with great timing,” Young said of Keita. “You know, he’s been through a lot too, he’s had some concussion issues over the last two weeks that he’s battled through. Proud of him to be able to step up. He looked more like himself tonight.”
Additionally, BYU practically shut down Miami’s typically elite transition offense, as the Hurricanes managed only seven fast break points — half of their season average.
“It was just more just sprinting back. At times you can get lazy and just jog up the court, but it was kind of an emphasis this game to sprint back on defense because I think they’re one of the higher (scoring) teams in transition,” AJ Dybantsa said.
Dybantsa scored 16 points with eight rebounds, shooting 5 of 15 from the field and 6 of 7 from the charity stripe.
Rob Wright III added 17 points with four assists, and Richie Saunders scored eight points while dishing out a game-high five assists.
As a whole, BYU shot 45.5% from the field and 47.4% from 3-point range, sinking 9 of 19 triples in front of an overwhelmingly pro-Cougars crowd.
The heavy majority of the announced 4,267 fans in attendance were decked out in royal blue, vastly outnumbering the Miami faithful despite playing in the Hurricanes’ home state.
“It was amazing,” Young said of the BYU fans who made the trip to Florida. “It’s something that’s really unique about BYU, playing all over the place, our fans travel. To see that much blue, especially on a holiday, you know, it was really cool.
“I know for me, I never take it for granted. I know our guys feed off of them and they just give us kind of an extra boost.”
BYU’s strong second half didn’t come without heartache for the Cougars, however. With just under six minutes left to play, sharpshooter Dawson Baker tumbled hard trying to cut under the basket and landed awkwardly, suffering what appeared to be a lower body injury and needing to be helped off the court and taken back into the locker room.
Should the injury be long-term, BYU would lose one of its most veteran rotation pieces and top shot-makers in the sixth-year senior Baker.
“It’s unfortunate,” Young said of Baker’s injury. “I have not gotten a full update from the medical team, but our thoughts and prayers are with Dawson, hoping for good news and a speedy recovery.”
After Dayton outlasted Georgetown in the second contest of the night, the Cougars will now face the 6-1 Flyers in Friday’ ESPN Events Invitational championship game at 7:30 p.m. MST.
“All year, we’ve been putting ourselves in some really tough games with how we scheduled it,” Young said. “This was an event we were really looking forward to playing in. Obviously, you know, the ACC is a great league and they produce really good teams, and that was no different tonight playing Miami. We’re looking forward to ... giving ourselves a chance to, you know, get better by playing really good teams.”
